Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb have hosted the fourth hour of the Today Show together for the past decade, and during that time the pair has had a lot of laughs and a lot of wine. But there have been some changes on the show in the past few months. Kotb replaced Matt Lauer as co-anchor in the first two hours of the show after NBC fired him for sexual misconduct, and Gifford has been absent from time to time because of outside projects. Will Gifford end up leaving Today so she can work on films?
Back in January, when the network announced Kotb would take Lauer’s former seat on the Today Show couch, Kotb and Gifford wiped away their tears of joy. “We are all so proud,” gushed Gifford.
But the 64-year-old also reassured her co-host that she wasn’t going anywhere, “You and me are together forever – you’re stuck with me!”
Going out in style! Thank you #theprivatesuite for your amazing hospitality! @hodakotb
According to Closer Weekly, Gifford was a bit fearful that she and Kotb’s show would change after the promotion, but she was happy for her friend and co-host. And, if anyone is worried about Gifford leaving the show anytime soon, they shouldn’t be.
Gifford has made some changes to her schedule with Today because of outside film projects. In January 2017 she told NBC that she would be leaving the show at the end of the year to make movies, but the network accommodated her schedule, so she decided to stay.
Gifford is currently working on a movie in Scotland that has kept her from The Today Show all week. Over the holidays, she spent time in Florida to write a new movie, and in early January of this year, Gifford revealed she wouldn’t be around much because of her outside projects.
“You get to a point in your life where you run out of time to do what you want to do,” explained Gifford.
Had a wonderful Day 2 filming #lovemetodeath today in the Scottish Highlands.
And what Gifford wants to do is make movies that revolved around her Christian faith and her own specific story. But, both she and Kotb want to continue hosting the fourth hour together, and that won’t change in the foreseeable future. “There’s no better place in a 50-year career,” insists Gifford.
Her Today Show gig also gave Gifford the opportunity to end a feud that had been going on for thirty years. She revealed last month that one day she was in the makeup room, and Howard Stern was there to announce America’s Got Talent, and she ended their one-sided feud by killing him with kindness.
Even though she had never met him or listened to his show, he had hated her guts for three decades. Stern wasn’t a fan of her husband or children, either, and hated everything Gifford stood for. But she says the Lord told her to go to Stern and say hello and introduce herself. She did that and wished him the best with his show, and this left him “flabbergasted.”
The remorseful Stern ended up calling her privately to bury the hatchet. The two ended up talking for a half-hour, and he asked her for forgiveness because he knew that he hurt her, and he was doing some “hard work” on his life.
Stern used to call Gifford “the world’s dumbest person,” and he used a lot of bad language to make hurtful comments about her for decades. But Gifford opted to congratulate him on working on himself and then forgave him, and added that she prays for him every day.
The self-proclaimed King of All Media said that Kathie Lee Gifford has always been so nice, it just p**ed him off because she was everything he wasn’t.